The market value of goods and services produced by labor and
property supplied by U.S. residents, regardless of where they are
located. It was used as the primary measure of U.S. production prior
to 1991, when it was replaced by
gross
domestic product (GDP).
The total market value, in terms of current dollars, of all final goods and services produced in the U.S. in one year.
An estimate of the total
money value of all the final goods and services produced in a given one-year period by the
factors of production owned by a particular country's residents. ("Final" goods and services means goods and services sold or otherwise provided to their final consumers -- that is, to avoid double counting, the value of steel sold to GM to make a car is not added separately into the GNP or GDP totals because its value is already included when we add in the final sales price of the car to the customer.) GNP and GDP are very closely related concepts in theory, and in actual practice the numbers tend to be pretty close to each other for most large industrialized countries. The differences between the two measures arise from the facts that there may be foreign-owned companies engaged in production within the country's borders and there may be companies owned by the country's residents that are engaged in production in some other country but provide income to residents. So, for example, when Americans receive more income from their overseas
investments than foreigners receive from their
investments in the United States, American GNP will be somewhat larger than GDP in that year. If Americans receive less income from their overseas
investments than foreigners receive from their US
investments , on the other hand, American GNP will be somewhat smaller than GDP.
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